Page 80 of The Secret of Secrets (Robert Langdon #6)

Buoyed by the double espresso, Jonas Faukman had now left the children’s publishing floor and returned to his office with a clear mission—to figure out exactly why Katherine’s manuscript had been hacked, particularly by such a formidable entity.

Alex Conan had joined him, eager to help—at least until his boss summoned him for the inevitable interrogation.

Faukman was at his desk computer, and the tech was seated opposite him with an open laptop. They had just begun to work when the piercing ring of Faukman’s office phone broke the silence.

“Jonas!” The familiar baritone of Robert Langdon crackled through the room. “Thank God, you’re safe! I tried your cell and home numbers. What are you doing at your office so early?!”

“Jesus, Robert…” Faukman’s heart pounded. “We thought you were…”

“I know what you heard,” Langdon said, “Katherine told me, but it was just my phone that drowned, not me.”

“Katherine is with you?”

“She is, and we’re both relieved to hear your voice. The last we heard, you were missing.”

“That’s a long story to be told over martinis,” Faukman said. “As you probably know, Katherine’s manuscript is gone. We were hacked, and it was deleted right out of the PRH system.”

“I heard. Is there any chance of resurrecting a backup from the server?”

Faukman glanced at Alex, who was shaking his head.

“It was wiped clean,” Faukman replied dejectedly. “I don’t know what to say.”

Langdon let out a sigh. “Too bad they didn’t delete my last book instead.”

Harsh but true, Faukman thought. Langdon’s last book— Symbols, Semiotics, and the Evolution of Language —had gotten rave reviews but never found an audience outside academia. “I was told Katherine printed a hard copy of her manuscript. Is that true?”

“Yes…but that one’s gone as well.”

Faukman took a deep breath. “Okay, let’s focus on what matters—you’re both safe. We can deal with the book later.”

“Well, that’s why I’m calling,” Langdon said. “I’m actually not sure we’re safe. We’re with the U.S. ambassador at her private residence, but it’s a peculiar situation. I’m not even supposed to be calling—”

“Wait! You’re with the American ambassador?

!” Faukman tried not to sound panicked. “Robert, I would be very careful about trusting anyone in our government. Our tech here traced the PRH hackers back to an extremely powerful organization.” He recalled the strange hyphenated name that Alex had typed earlier in the PRH Security Center. “The organization is called In-Q-Tel.”

“Never heard of them.”

“I hadn’t either. From all I can gather, they’re an incredibly well-funded venture capital firm that develops advanced technologies, mostly under the radar, so it’s no surprise you don’t know who they are.”

“But that makes no sense,” Langdon argued. “Venture capital firms don’t hire hackers and field operatives.”

“I believe this one does. You may not have heard of In-Q-Tel, but you’ve definitely heard of their parent organization.”

“Who is that?”

Faukman sighed heavily. “A little group called the CIA.”

The line went silent.

I know, Faukman thought, recalling his own stunned reaction.

“Here’s all I know,” Faukman continued. “The CIA owns and operates In-Q-Tel as a private venture capital firm to discreetly invest in technologies related to national security. They control hundreds of high-tech patents, as well as majority stakes in some of the boldest new tech companies.” The editor had turned back to his computer, pulling up the screen he had just been reading.

“Their critics—mostly in competing investment firms—consistently complain that In-Q-Tel’s affiliation with the U.S.

intelligence machine affords them, and I quote, ‘an alarming flexibility in the way they pursue their goals.’ Something tells me we’ve witnessed some of that flexibility tonight. ”

“Incredible,” Langdon whispered, sounding shaken. “Who knows why the CIA would target Katherine’s book, but considering all that’s happened, their fingerprints seem to be all over this—”

“You’ve got to be kidding !” Alex exclaimed, waving wildly and spinning his laptop so Faukman could see the screen. “Look at this!”

The laptop displayed a Wikipedia page, which Alex had apparently opened after hearing Langdon mention the ambassador.

Wikipedia:

Heide Nagel: U.S. Ambassador to the Czech Republic:

The citation was several pages long and dotted by a series of underlined highlights, underscoring the results of the document search Alex had just conducted.

…Nagel was hired by CIA directly out of NYU Law…

…overseeing CIA policy counsel…

…promoted to CIA general counsel advising agency director…

…retired from CIA to serve as ambassador…

“Oh shit, Robert…” Faukman whispered into the phone. “ Get out of that house! Now!”